<USS Avalon> Log: Back in the Saddle Again

Back in the Saddle Again

-Dodge Thomas



 

He was staring at the clock and had been for ever so long when the door chimed. 
The sound was louder than he remembered it being, and it seemed to go on and 
on, echoing into the darkness of his mind. Nausea threatened to take over, but 
Dodge remained in control, therefore, keeping the contents of his stomach where 
they belonged. The clock changed over, and the door chimed again.

Dodge rolled over in his bed and tried to sit up, but rather than rolling over, 
he rolled out and hit the floor with a thud.


There was a knock at the door, loud and unyielding. 

?Oh god.? moaned Dodge as a familiar salivation began in the back of his mouth. 

?Dodge? Dodge, are you okay??

?Oh god.? he moaned again. Suddenly his back arched, his neck stiffened and his 
mouth gagged open. With a messy splash, the contents of his stomach were no 
longer in his stomach but were instead strewn about the floor of his bedroom. 
Pickles and onions, he noted. Odd. (He didn?t recall having eaten any pickles 
or onions, but what the hell, why not??) He collapsed into the semi-fluid and 
was instantly assaulted by any number of sickening smells, textures, and 
flavors. All this was too much for him and he puked again.

?Dodge, I?m coming in there if you don?t let me in right this instant!?

?No, no.? he said miserably, pushing himself away from the mess he had just 
made and making as good a try as he could to stand. He managed to stumble out 
of his room before he barfed again. Finally, he made it to the door and, after 
making a pitiful attempt to fix himself, he opened it.

?Dodge, what happened to you?? Anilla Aguatequa?s face showed a mixture of 
worry and disgust (Dodge had vomit all down his front and in his hair from 
having laid in the mess.)

?Um?I threw up. Duh.? He sounded insulted, as if it were the most obvious thing 
in the galaxy (actually, it wasn?t too difficult to see what was up, but 
whatever.)

?I can see that, and you needn?t be a jerk about it. Are you okay??

?Yeh, uh, no.? He leaned forward and puked for a fourth time.

?Dodge! You?ve been drinking!?

At this, Dodge made an indignant snort and muttered ?Duh? again.

?We need to get you to bed right away.? Anilla was staring at the regurgitated 
mess with distaste.

?Oh, that would be a bad choice.?

?Well, at least lay down on the couch then.?

?Okay. Here now, I don?t want you to be all sympathetic and what not. All I 
need is some time to ah-? he held up one finger and bent down again, but didn?t 
barf this time. After swallowing a bit, he looked back up at Anilla and 
continued. ?All I need is some time to adjust again, then I?ll be back to my 
old self again.?

?Looks like adjustment time is over, Dodge. The Quantum Warp Symposium starts 
at oh eight hundred hours.?

?Tomorrow?? Dodge nearly gagged again.

?No, in six hours.?

This time, he did gag. ?What?!? he shouted, then immediately regretted it. 
After his head stopped pounding, he smiled at Anilla and thanked her for the 
news.

?I really must be going now, seeing as how my shift starts in five hours and 
I?d like to get some sleep. You should sleep too.? She patted him on the 
shoulder.

Dodge sank into the sofa. ?Thanks for the news, Ann.?

?No problem, enjoy going planetside.?

?Right.?

The doors slid shut and Dodge laid back slowly and stared at two empty bottles 
labeled ?Electric Buzz?. The only buzzing he felt at the moment was in his 
ears. ?Damn it all.? he coughed, then fell asleep.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The shuttle ride down to the Annual Engineering Conferences was bumpy, but 
Dodge knew his head would have hurt more if he had beamed down. Transporters 
magnify hangovers. It was cloudy over Asuncion, but a strong wind out of the 
northwest cleared the clouds just in time for his shuttle to begin its descent. 
The mountainous Paraguayan city was still just as beautiful as he had 
remembered it. He checked his chronometer. Oh seven thirty. 

?Pilot. Any chance of setting down outside the conference zone??

?This week? Sorry Commander, but what with all the air traffic and events, 
that?s impossible.?


The events the pilot was referring to were the two to three week long 
conferences in bio-sciences, mechanics, warp theory--almost every field of 
scientific, medical or engineering had some kind of conference, colloquium, 
symposium, exhibition or lecture. Dodge himself was scheduled to attend twelve 
different events in three different cities, all within the next week. He had 
also requested that each member of his staff attend at least one of the events 
held in Asuncion Paraguay (the Engineering Conference), Manchester England (the 
Quantum Mechanics Colloquiums) or Honolulu Hawaii (There was a lecture on 
Sub-Transwarp drive conversion and selectivity that would probably prove to be 
the most boring of all, but the beach was only half a block away, so Dodge 
planned on attending the seven hour event). He also suggested that they take a 
look at Starfleet headquarters in San Francisco.

The shuttle set down and Dodge mentally went over the day?s events in his head. 
His first event started in less than twenty minutes, so he still had a chance 
to grab a cup of coffee. The conference center was packed with delegates, 
engineers and every sort of wrench wielding person imaginable. Dodge 
immediately decided against trying to find a coffee shop anywhere inside the 
huge convention building. He turned and headed out into the streets of Paraguay.

However, unlike a good deal of modernized cities elsewhere on Earth, Asuncion 
still retained most of it?s more historical architecture. Roads had been carved 
through rock and houses had been built over roads and over more houses and then 
roads had been built over that. The whole city was a modern mess of ancient 
design. Needless to say, Dodge was lost inside of ten minutes. He checked his 
chronometer, but found that it was no longer in his pocket where he had left 
it. In fact, everything he had had in his pockets was gone.

?Shit.? he muttered to himself. Not only was his timepiece gone, but his 
identification and his communicator had also been pilfered. 

?Hey mister? Missin? something??? a little boy asked innocently.

Dodge glared at the youth, who was dressed in nothing more than rags. This 
struck him as odd simply because the idea of poverty on Earth was absurd. ?Yea, 
my ID and communicator. Do you have them??

?No, but for two credits, I?ll find them. Pay up front.?

?I already told you that I don?t have my ID. How am I supposed to forward 
credits without any ID??

?Those little pips are nice. Gold, right??

?Gold plated. But you--?

?Good enough for me. Hand them over and I?ll find your stuff.?


?How do I know you?re not just going to run off and rob me??

?Word of honor. That?s still worth something in this slum, eh??

Dodge gave the kid a hard stare, then unfastened the pips, including his new 
one signifying promotion to Lieutenant Commander. ?I swear, if you run off and 
screw me over, I?ll--? But the boy was already gone. Dodge waited for a few 
minutes, slowly beginning to grow nervous. Everywhere he looked, strange people 
were giving him less than friendly looks. He almost jumped when someone grabbed 
his shirt. 

?Here ya go, Mister.? The little boy was back and proudly displaying Dodge?s 
belongings. ?There?s a credit transfer kiosk over there.? he pointed.

Dodge walked over to the unit and inserted his ID card. ?What?s the account??


?KWAL-00009381? answered the boy.

?That?s not standard Federation credit code.?

?Naw, Galactic credit is way more valuable, not to mention easier to spend.?

?Are you an offworlder?? Dodge eyed the child suspiciously.

?Nope, but it?s not that hard to get an account. Ya want me to set you up one? 
It?ll cost ya fifty credits.?

?Fifty credits! That?s outrageous! I could go to any bank and get an account 
set up for half that price.?

?Yea, but it wouldn?t be universal. You?d have to pay transfer fees and set up 
fees and Federation/Galactic credit exchange balances. You?d end up paying way 
more and the account would be monitored and audited and all sorts of other 
security things.?

?They instigate those security things for a reason.?

?Yea, to make money.? The child snorted disdainfully. ?That?s why we have to do 
business like this, in the back alleys of slum cities. Otherwise we get slapped 
in the face with standard Federation tariffs.?

Dodge thought about that for a moment, then looked at the boy again. ?You stole 
my stuff just so you could sell it back to me, didn?t you??

?Yea, so? Whudareyagunnado? That?s the way life is here. Now, do you want me to 
set you up an account or not??

There was a second or two of silence. Then: ?Sure, why not?

Fifteen minutes, five alleys, two flights of stairs, and a cup of coffee later 
found Dodge and the young boy in a damp and humid room overlooking the green 
valleys of Paraguay. 

?All right mister Thomas. Ninety thousand Standard Federation Credits have been 
converted into Galactic currency. Since you didn?t use a bank, you avoid 
exchange fees, so you get to keep all of your money, except for the fifty 
credits you owe me. How?d you get so much money? Your account isn?t even five 
years old.?


?I own a provincial valley on my homeworld, roughly eight hundred square miles. 
I get benefits.?

?How come you get so much land? There isn?t a square foot of land sea on Earth 
that isn?t owned and operated by the Federation.?

?I inherited it.? Dodge said, a touch of bitterness edging into his voice.

?Wow! Who died and left you that much land??

?Everyone else who lived there. Here. Here?s your fifty credits, now if you 
don?t mind, I must be leaving.?

?Sure, no problem.?

Dodge turned to leave, then hesitated. ?Look, could you tell me the way back to 
the Convention center. I?m kinda lost.?

?Sure! No problem?for five credits.?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

In contrast to his morning, that days conferences were both uneventful and 
unenlightening. Afterward, he saw a group of crewmates and they invited him out 
for a drink, but Dodge had had enough of the city for one night, and he had 
certainly had enough alcohol for the day. 

Due to the amount of people currently trafficking Earth, security had been 
stepped up and all non intracity transport was restricted only to high ranking 
officers, on duty medical staff and on duty security staff. These restrictions 
included off planet transport and so Dodge was forced to take one of the large 
transport shuttles. These seated roughly thirty persons not including four 
flight crew. The crew was preparing for launch.

?What are your opinions on poverty on Earth?? He asked the woman who had just 
sat down next to him, startling her.

?What? What are you talking about??

?I was just wondering--? But he was drowned out as the shuttle accelerated and 
left the docking pad of the Convention Center. For a moment, the artificial 
gravity couldn?t keep up and Dodge?s stomach lurched. The cityscape tore away 
from them and the shuttle was soon engulfed in clouds.

?I say, I didn?t quite get that last part.? The woman spoke after the roar of 
acceleration had died down and the artificial gravity regained inertia. The 
shuttle was now above the clouds, flying level and awaiting atmospheric exit 
clearance. 

?I was just asking what you felt about poverty on Earth.?

?Well, historically, poverty was a major problem in every country and province 
on Earth, mostly because of greedy governments and aristocratic societies. But 
now, there is no such thing as poverty, not on Earth or anywhere else in the 
Federation.?

?I wouldn?t be so sure.? Dodge replied, glancing out the window as the shuttle 
pulled away from the clouds and into the blackness of space. Directly ahead of 
the shuttle was the new long range transporter station, but it was still under 
construction. Dodge recalled the lecture earlier that day concerning the 
experimental units that could ?transport matter/energy combinations across any 
distance and then reassemble them in a viable pattern in another unit?. It all 
sounded like a load of bunko to him, but the lecturer had said that a plant had 
been transported from Earth?s unit to the unit on Vulcan with only minimal 
pattern distortion. Still unacceptable for standard transport of living 
creatures, but at least the plant materialized, sort of.

?Why not??


Dodge relayed the story of his morning to the woman as the shuttle made stops 
at various stations and starships, leaving out the part about setting up a 
separate credit account.

?That?s an interesting opinion, but any poverty that those people say they 
suffer from would be self inflicted. Nobody following Federation regulations 
would ever be in poverty. Chances are that kid was a drug trafficker or 
something like that, operating outside Federation rules. Did you report him??

?Of course.? Dodge lied. He suspected some of what the woman was saying was 
true, but he also suspected deeper issues that she was probably not aware of.

?Good. It wouldn?t do for a Federation officer to be getting entangled in such 
affairs. It?s been lovely, but this is my ship.? 

The shuttle had just pulled up alongside a Sovereign-Class starship.

?What ship do you serve on??

?The Enterprise.?

?Really? Is it really as exciting as everyone talks about??

?No, at least, there haven?t been any problems since I?ve been aboard.?

?Or adventures I?ll wager. My name?s Dodge. Dodge Thomas, Lt. Commander Thomas 
if you want.?

?Kimi Lewis. Commander Lewis. I?m her chief engineer.?

?Wow. Class thirteen triple K Sub-transwarp selective Engines. How are those? 
Fast I bet.?

?They are reliable. I?m sure that they are fast, but when you?re running 
diplomats and emissaries between worlds, you don?t do so under full speed. If 
you?ll excuse me, we?ve arrived. I enjoyed your company Mister Thomas.? She 
extended her hand as the shuttle trembled ever so slightly as it docked.

?And I yours Miss Lewis. Please, call me Dodge.?

?Have a good night Dodge. Perhaps I?ll see you later on this week. You will be 
attending the rest of the events right??


?As many as I can.?

?Excellent. If you want to know more about the Enterprise?s engines--?

?I?d love to!? He cut her off in mid sentence.

?Love to what??

?Come aboard and take a look.?

?Actually, I was inviting you to my lecture in Honolulu next week. Will I see 
you there??

?Um?of course. I was planning on attending that one anyway.?

?Excellent. Goodnight? She smiled, nodded and exited the shuttle with four 
other officers.

Dodge spent the next twenty minutes entertaining thoughts about he and Miss 
Lewis basking in the sunlight on the white sands of Waikiki beach. When he 
arrived back at his cabin, he found a handwritten note attached to the door. It 
read:

Hey Dodge! 

Most of us down in engineering are going to Central India tomorrow morning for 
some shopping and sightseeing. If you wanna join us, catch the seven forty 
shuttle. Don?t be late! The seven forty-five shuttle sets down on the 
northernmost tip of Antarctica, so unless you want to attend a demonstration of 
applied thermogenic terraforming techniques, don?t be late!

-Ann

He smiled and entered his cabin, grateful that he was finally back in the swing 
of things.


                
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